I need some real true TECH antivirus help - OT - SORRY!!

[number six]

I once had a virus called Mcaffee Antivirus. It would slow my computer to a crawl, use 99% CPU, crash other programs, give false positives, wouldn't help me with malware and adware, and interrupt window focus at random intervals. I finally realized it was worse than the programs it was trying to save me from, so I uninstalled it. Why can't there be a program that scans for viruses AND malware, and not all these antique 90's viruses that pose no threat on modern PCs?

Sorry to go further off-topic.

Ha!

Some of the A/V software out there is just terrible as far as sucking down system resources. For example AVG 7.5 will eat upwards of 200mbs of RAM which can absolutely destroy an old P4. AVG 8 reduces it to about 40mbs which is at least more acceptable. But you have to watch out as often times the A/V software can have a greater performance impact than a virus!

[Chris]

I'll have to check out the new AVG. Yeah, Mcaffee and Norton have both evolved into downright horrible products. And I mean, let's face it, traditional computer viruses have been nearly eradicated these days. Now it's all about malware, because there's money to be made in it, and in the end, money wins out to those Scandinavian anarchist haxor kiddies. The funny thing is, Mcaffee and Norton have delved into malware removal, but then gave up on it and stuck more with traditional virus detection, yet the malware problem continues to get worse and there's so much of it the removal tools can't keep up. Some of those programs can utterly destroy your operating system, and security holes they leave can make your life unhappy as well. They are no different than viruses and should be taken very seriously.

Back on topic, I'd like to add, be careful on those emails that claim you received a Hallmark card or whatever. Don't open it. That one has been keeping me busy at work, people just can't resist clicking on it.

[micksimmonds]

I just upgraded to AVG8 and its a lot better and doesnt eat up the system as much as 7.5, that really did eat into the system, and slowed down the laptop we have AVG on, Norton is just terrible, although will say the latest 2009 version or 2008 or whatever it is, is much less system hungry

[number six]

I'll have to check out the new AVG. Yeah, Mcaffee and Norton have both evolved into downright horrible products. And I mean, let's face it, traditional computer viruses have been nearly eradicated these days. Now it's all about malware, because there's money to be made in it, and in the end, money wins out to those Scandinavian anarchist haxor kiddies. The funny thing is, Mcaffee and Norton have delved into malware removal, but then gave up on it and stuck more with traditional virus detection, yet the malware problem continues to get worse and there's so much of it the removal tools can't keep up. Some of those programs can utterly destroy your operating system, and security holes they leave can make your life unhappy as well. They are no different than viruses and should be taken very seriously.

I'm not a huge fan of AVG, just a lot of our client locations use it. If your going to try it definitely get AVG 8, there's a "Free" edition which offers most of the core protection for well, free. Right now I use Symantec Corporate and it's resource impact isn't that bad. It's sucking up about 60mbs which is hardly felt even on the 2.0Ghz P4 (1.5GB of ram) I'm on (Main system got struck by lightning). Symantec doesn't do jack for malware generally speaking, but I keep myself out of trouble.

Back on topic, I'd like to add, be careful on those emails that claim you received a Hallmark card or whatever. Don't open it. That one has been keeping me busy at work, people just can't resist clicking on it.

Dude, like I said one site has had about 5 or 6 infections now. When I was there today another person brought their home computer in that had 'XP Anti-virus' all over it. This one was so bad the Anti-Malware wouldn't even load so she's stuck (obviously can't spend a lot of time on a personal PC and she'll need her data backed up and a format at this point.. )

It amazes me how people just don't friggin listen. They'll give every excuse in the book (especially the 'i'm not very good with computers..' line) but honestly this is just plain common sense. You don't go applying for every credit card or mortgage re-finance that comes in your physical mailbox at home do you? So why are you going to go clicking on BS links? People..

[number six]

I just upgraded to AVG8 and its a lot better and doesnt eat up the system as much as 7.5, that really did eat into the system, and slowed down the laptop we have AVG on, Norton is just terrible, although will say the latest 2009 version or 2008 or whatever it is, is much less system hungry

From what I gather AVG 7.5 just went nuts these last few months for some reason. We had one site where all their older P4s were just dragging.. to the point they were going to get rid of all of them, but it was just AVG 7.5. You'd remove it and you'd drop 100-200mbs on the Pagefile. I contacted AVG (their support is absolute shit btw) and got basically nowhere. Upgrading to AVG 8 pretty much solved all the problems though.

But on 7.5 the 512mb ram systems would be at just under 500mbs on their pagefile at bootup so obviously one copy of outlook or word running and their swapping to the hard drive and there goes your performance right out the window.

[Baiter]

I'll have to check out the new AVG. Yeah, Mcaffee and Norton have both evolved into downright horrible products. And I mean, let's face it, traditional computer viruses have been nearly eradicated these days.

From a conspiracy theory standpoint, all these anti-virus companies have a vested interest in keeping viruses out there... once they are gone anti-virus products go out the window.  In a capitalist world, what better way to boost sales but release a new virus once in a while to keep people on edge? 

As to traditional computer viruses being eradicated... maybe.  I think it's more of a case where anti-virus software implements some standard security checks that should, frankly, be embedded into the OS.  For example, there's no reason anything should be able to add bytes to OS executables, or overwrite the MBR.... the OS should detect and stop it.  Using patterns as such probably does eradicate the majority of viruses and trojans.

[Niloc]

I'll have to check out the new AVG. Yeah, Mcaffee and Norton have both evolved into downright horrible products. And I mean, let's face it, traditional computer viruses have been nearly eradicated these days.

From a conspiracy theory standpoint, all these anti-virus companies have a vested interest in keeping viruses out there... once they are gone anti-virus products go out the window.  In a capitalist world, what better way to boost sales but release a new virus once in a while to keep people on edge? 

As to traditional computer viruses being eradicated... maybe.  I think it's more of a case where anti-virus software implements some standard security checks that should, frankly, be embedded into the OS.  For example, there's no reason anything should be able to add bytes to OS executables, or overwrite the MBR.... the OS should detect and stop it.  Using patterns as such probably does eradicate the majority of viruses and trojans.

To some extent I think you're right - the anti-virus companies have a vested interest in being able to block virri (or thier product obviously has no value) but they have no interest in actually getting rid of them.

A lot of mal-ware is a big time money making proposition these days, much of it comes from Eastern Europe - they just try to infect as many computers as possible, they they've got a huge network of zombie PCs they control. With that they can easily perform DDOS and other types of attacks, knocking companies off the net and blackmailing them for a payoff to stop. The companies that are victimized often don't want to look weak or insecure in the eyes of their customers so they pay.

[Chris]

You know the conspiracy theory actually makes sense, because very few times will a virus scanner ever actually remove the virus from your file. They'll make you quarantine it, where they know you'll accidentally pull it from one one day and start the process all over again.

Those Eastern Europeans are all programming geniuses. They've got 10-year-olds hacking in assembler, heh. That'll keep you awake at night.